


Stargazing

by lunarsilverwolfstar



Series: August 2016 Prompts [10]
Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: F/M, Past Lives, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-02
Updated: 2017-01-02
Packaged: 2018-09-14 04:25:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 810
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9161266
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lunarsilverwolfstar/pseuds/lunarsilverwolfstar
Summary: Do you believe in past lives?





	

**Author's Note:**

> Day 9.

Her head was tilted up to stare at the starry sky above them. She was unaware of his approach, at least, he didn’t think she was. Just as he made to place his hand on her waist, she spoke.

“Touch me, Liam, and I’ll make sure you don’t have any appendages left to touch yourself at night when you’re lonely. Not that you have that quandary.”  


“Elizabeth,” he whispered, her name a prayer, a supplication, an apology.  


One that came too late.

“You don’t owe me anything and I don’t owe you a thing. This is where we part ways. After tonight, I’ll be nothing more than a memory.” With that, she walked back inside, getting lost in the sea of people gathered in her home.

She broke her promise, which served him right since he’d gone back on his word first.

That night, he followed a whore into an alley where he lost his soul, losing all recollection of _her_.

-

“Angel,” she sighed his name like it was a blessing instead of a curse, staring straight into the night sky as she snuggled in his arms. “Sometimes it feels like I’ve known you forever,” she murmured drowsily.  


“I know,” he whispered, “I feel the same.” Nuzzling her hair, he looked up with her, frowning when all he saw were the bare spattering of stars. Living in a city, even one as small as Sunnydale, had its downsides, Hellmouth notwithstanding.

“Do you believe in past lives?” she wondered.  


“Buffy. What’s got you so nostalgic tonight?” If he still had a beating heart, it’d be pounding right now. Is this what it felt like to wonder what it would feel like if the person who held your figurative heart in one hand would crush your spirit with the other?  


He felt her shrug. “Nothing. Just a strange dream I had.”

He sighed in relief, before growing concerned. “Your dreams usually mean something’s coming.”

“Sometimes,” she agreed. “But this one was... different. It was more like...a feeling of loss. Something I’d already lost.” As she spoke, she lifted her hand, her finger tracing the few stars they could see. Growing still, he watched her trace out a name.  


It couldn’t be. "You heard that name in your dream?”  


She shrugged again. “Yeah. I didn’t see his face, but apparently he was a jerk. I didn’t want him to touch me. He’d betrayed me somehow, so I walked away. I later found out he and his family died of...some sort of beast attack, but I assume they were attacked by vampires. I died soon after. I was already dying when I gave this Liam guy the whatfor.” She turned to him with a grin, but it fell when she saw the look of horror that must have been plain on his face. She pulled herself up on her forearms. “Angel, what’s wrong?”

He swallowed. “Liam. Liam was my name when I was human. There was this girl, her name was Elizabeth Anne. I’d loved her my entire human life, as far as I can remember. But I was a stupid brute who didn’t deserve her. I lost her of my own doing, ended up in Darla’s clutches, and I didn’t remember her again until I got my soul back. Even then, I could never remember her face, but...” Hesitantly, he reached for her and it took her hand tugging him closer until he cupped her cheek. “It can’t be.” He shook his head.

“Why not? We’ve done the impossible before. So, what do you think, we’re some sort of star-crossed lovers,” she grinned cheekily up at him.  


He wanted to chide her, not wanting her to romanticize the horrors they’d gone through. Of course he loved her and he knew she loved him, but their life was as far removed from fairy tales as it could get. This was real life and they had learned a long time ago to roll with the punches the world threw at them. They’d gotten quite good at it, really, but this was a class all on its own. Could they really have known one another hundreds of years ago? It was too big of a coincidence.

Gazing back up as if the stars themselves would give him the answers he sought, he finally replied, “I don’t know. I just know, here and now, you’re Buffy, the vampire slayer, and I’m a vampire with a soul.” And I still don’t deserve you, he thought, as he looked down at her again.

Still, she was not one to back down easily. “I don’t care _what_  you are, Angel. All that matters is _who_  you are, here and now, like you said.”

“Here and now,” he promised, sealing the deal with a kiss and hoping with all his might that this was one he could actually keep.  



End file.
